As good as it gets? The Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph 5970R
Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph 5970R-001
Sometimes, the unassuming ones are the special ones, and in the grand scheme of Patek Philippe, this 40mm rose gold Perpetual Calendar Chronograph, reference 5970R is considered to be a legend that has drawn nothing but high praise from all sides of the watch world.
John Meyer described it as “as good as it gets, and as good as it may ever get”
Wei Koh, founder of Revolution Magazine has called it “the single most beautiful classic wristwatch ever created”
Originally, as a fan of contemporary and vintage sports watches, I was a little like “IS IT YEAH?” But having put my nose into the books and the watch on my wrist, I absolutely concede that yes, it probably is.
Patek Philippe under the Stern leadership have made their name as creators of perpetual calendar chronographs. It is what the brand does best, and given that they started in 1941 with the introduction of reference 1518 - they’ve had a lot of time and experience to perfect the craft.
It is also interesting to note that prior the handover of the company from Philipe to Thierry Stern, the challenge from father to son was to create a classic.
It took two years to design and configure, and Thierry said of the watch - “In the end, I decided to design a watch that could be worn by my father or myself: a watch that would suit my father’s generation as well as mine. For me it is one of the few pieces, perhaps the only piece, which is a mix of two generations of the Stern family.”
As you may have guessed, that watch was the 5970.
It was produced from 2004-2010, the shortest production run in Stern history, and it’s estimated that the entire output across the four precious metals spanned around 2800 examples.
Given that some “Limited Edition” models run into the tens of thousands <cough, Omega>, its fair to say that the 5970 in any iteration is an elusive beast.
As well as being hard to find, aesthetically it is also hard to beat with golden dimensions of 40mm diameter, 46.4mm lug to lug, 13.5mm thick and 21mm between the gloriously sculptured lugs.
The mid case is round and tactile while the broad bezel has a concave slope which contours the crystal to the case seamlessly. Its a cracking and exceptionally tactile design that feels just as lush as it looks.
Finishing the case are a pair of rectangular pushers and a recessed crown.
My favourite case elements are the lug flare and bezel curvature both of which hark back the deco era where design flourishes were both subtle and well executed.
The dial is beautiful and an “opaline” silvery white tone with rose gold applied indexes. It really is just right against the warmth of rose gold.
Its black text, which is beloved by many a collector and reviewer, is an undeniably lovely neo-vintage American Courier Typewriter font.
Sitting just below twelve, two bevelled windows take care of the day and month display.
Below that, the “twofer” subdials are laid out in absolutely perfect proportion.
I say twofer because all three dials communicate two pieces of information each.
At three, chronograph minutes appear on the outer track with a leap year indicator on the interior
At six sits a slightly larger subdial featuring date and a really spectacular moonphase which features raised and hand finished stars mounted to the disk.
Running seconds are at nine with a 24 hour indicator making sure that you know when setting if its am or pm.
Worth getting it set right first time as perpetual calendars dont need to be manually changed beyond time correction until the year 2100.
There’s a lot of pertinent information on display, but the dial doesnt feel cramped or overly busy in the slightest.
This is largely thanks to the increase in watch size at the hands of Thierry Stern as previous Perp Cals had been desgined at around the 35/36mm mark.
The hands are a rose gold leaf design, again, very old world, and a blackened gold chronograph hand which stands out against the dial when in use makes reading of the whole shebang an absolute breeze.
There is no lume anywhere, as it would be out of place and wrong on this piece.
And finally, the movement.
I’ve left this to the end of the review, only to stop myself from opening in the same way as 99% of anything ever said about the 5970.
Inevitably, we have arrived at possibly the most important of this absolute little legend.
- It is the last of the Lemania based Patek Perpetual Calendar Chrono’s.
The movement is Pateks CH27-70 which is based on the Lemania 2130 base calibre.
It has (in laymans terms) been fettled by Patek to incorporate a perpetual calendar and beautifully finished geneva stripes and hand finished bevels.
Forgive me, as this is an exceptionally potted version of the 2130’s history -
It’s a column wheel chronograph with vertical clutch that hails from the golden era of watchmaking where the great minds got themselves together and cooperated for the greater good of watchmaking rather than pulling up the drawbridges and pretending that “in-house” sat above all else.
It was a time when there were ebauche (movement) manufacturers, case builders, and dial makers were all working together to create the best that they could, which is why you’ll see Patek and other haute horlogy brands from this era using Valjoux, Lemania and LeCoultre movements.
After feeling the pinch of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Tissot, Omega and Lemania forged a collaborative relationship working on the principle of stability and strength in numbers.
They formed SSIH Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogére SA.
Out of that relationship came the 2130 movement which was commissioned by Omega and designed by Albert Gustave Piguet, the technical director of Lemania (and cousin to Edward Piguet of Audemars fame)
It was the worlds smallest chrono at the time with a 27mm diameter and just over 6mm tall which meant that it could fit into a variety of different cases.
That is exactly what it did for 20+ years before becoming the base calibre for the Omega 321 movement, which in turn went to the moon in 1969 on the wrist of Buzz Aldrin as the calibre running his Speedmaster Professional 105.012.
I find it mind-blowing but utterly brilliant that the 5970 pinnacle of Patek, and the original Moonwatch share the same DNA.
It would be quite unbelievable if you weren’t able to flip the 5970 over and compare it to the early 321.
This shared movement and history doesn’t diminish the 5970, or any 2130 powered Patek.
It enriches them as the Lemania 2130 is an absolute legend that has been found in anything from military chronographs to Vacherons, Breguets and more which is why for so many watch lovers, the 5970 is both considered and said to be the last of the great Pateks as it closes the door on the golden era of watchmaking and collaboration, and ushers in the new “In-House” age.
John Meyer was right. It’s as good as it gets, and as good as it may ever get.